The Wales squad refused to board the team bus on Monday morning until the pay dispute had been resolved, and missed their flight from Heathrow to New Zealand.

The incident has caused international embarrassment for the WRU, who today blamed several of the squad’s senior players for the affair.

Lewis said: “Our payment structure is based on payment for achievement and payment for success, rather than payment for attendance and payment for failure.

“Over the last four years, we’ve paid over £5.6m (€7.9m) to the national squad, over and above their club contracts. During that time, our top 10 earners earned between £147,000 (€206,900) and £217,000 (€305,500).

“During that period we’ve played 20 Six Nations games and won only six – and three of them were against Italy.

“We’ve suffered seven consecutive losses and a Six Nations whitewash. The only sides other than Italy that we’ve actually beaten are Romania, Fiji and Canada. And all that has cost us in excess of £5.6m (€7.9m).”

Lewis said the Wales squad had concerns with the initial proposal, but that he was open to discussion. He tried to meet players’ representatives in the build-up to last weekend’s Barbarians match, but was told they were unavailable.

“Everyone had been unavailable for contact for me from Thursday until Monday morning. Monday morning was the first we knew that the players had taken the decision that they weren’t going to turn up.

“You have to make up your own minds as to who was unavailable to whom.”

Asked if the player action had been led by a small band of senior players, Lewis replied: “Our intelligence tells us this is down to four or five senior internationals and the rest of the players are thoroughly embarrassed by the whole incident.”